Green light given to Irish wind farm

Bord na Móna windfarm expansion accelerates Ireland's renewable energy push, adding turbines, a 110-kV substation, EirGrid connection, and CO2 cuts, alongside flexible gas-fired peaking capacity to support the 40% clean-power target by 2020.

Irish state-owned heating and energy group Bord na Móna has been given the green light to build an 80-megawatt MW windfarm in Mountlucas, County Offaly.

Based at Bord na Mona's peat-production site, the windfarm will cost an estimated 120 million euros US $152 million and will be capable of generating enough electricity for approximately 45,000 homes. Bord na Mona maintained that the windfarm would offset CO2 emissions by up to 125,000 tonnes per year. The proposed windfarm adds to the company's increased efforts to expand its renewable energy assets. The company's traditional business has involved managing the nation's peat resources, which it has supplied as a fuel to power plants for 50 years.

As it attempts to move beyond the peat-based businesses, the company is diversifying assets by building electricity-generating facilities that include windfarms across its portfolio, flexible gas-fired generation and peaking units.

In January, Bord na Mona announced that it would apply for planning permission to build the 40-MW Bruckana Windfarm near Templetuohy in the south of Ireland, similar to Irish Sea wind projects advancing regionally. Bruckana Windfarm will be situated on cutaway peat lands and the 16 turbines will generate enough electricity for approximately 20,000 homes and prevent the emission of 55,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases each year.

The proposed development of the Mountlucas Windfarm will consist of the construction of 32 wind turbines with individual capacities of 2.5 MW, access trackways, crane hard-standings, and underground cables running between the turbines and a 110-kilovolt electricity substation. The plant will contribute to the Irish government's goal of generating 40 of the nation's electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020.

Bord na Mona has made an application to EirGrid for connection of the windfarm to the national grid, which will occur in 2011. Construction of the farm will take 18 to 24 months, a timeline similar to the Dunlap wind farm schedule announced elsewhere.

In April this year, Bord na Mona received permission from Ireland's planning authority, An Bord Pleanala, to build the 600-MW Derrygreenagh power station, which will consist of two units: a reserve/peaking open-cycle gas turbine unit of about 170 MW and a flexible, combined-cycle gas turbine unit of 430 MW, alongside major EU windfarm expansion efforts underway. Construction dates have not been set, and according to Bord na Mona Chief Executive Gabriel D'Arcy, certain obstacles are hindering the project.

"This is a major milestone on the road to bringing this project to fruition," he said, noting parallels with the Boston wind proposal progressing through reviews. "However, there are still a number of hurdles to be cleared, including obtaining a grid connection offer and an IPPC Integrated Pollution Prevention & Control license for the power station. The completion of these associated consents processes will dictate when the project can progress to the construction stage."

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